Ha-jin Yi Books

Celebrated for its poignant storytelling, this novel delves into the complexities of human relationships and the search for identity. The narrative weaves together themes of love, loss, and resilience, capturing the emotional struggles of its characters as they navigate their intertwined lives. With rich prose and vivid imagery, the author explores the intricacies of personal growth against a backdrop of societal expectations, making it a compelling read that resonates with anyone grappling with their own journey.

A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of the Year Lilian Shang, a history professor in Maryland, knew that her father, Gary, had been the most important Chinese spy ever caught in the United States. But when she discovers his diary after the death of her parents, its pages reveal the full pain and longing that his double life entailed—and point to a hidden second family that he’d left behind in China. As Lilian follows her father’s trail back into the Chinese provinces, she begins to grasp the extent of her father’s dilemma—torn between loyalty to his motherland and the love he came to feel for his adopted country. As she starts to understand that Gary, too, had been betrayed, she finds that it is up to her to prevent his tragedy from endangering yet another generation of the Shangs. A stunning portrait of a multinational family, an unflinching inquiry into the meaning of patriotism, A Map of Betrayal is a spy novel that only Ha Jin could write.

Set against the backdrop of the Korean War, the novel explores the harrowing experiences of Chinese soldiers in U.S. POW camps. Yu Yuan, a clerical officer, becomes a crucial link between his fellow prisoners and their American captors due to his English skills. The narrative delves into the complexities of survival within the camp, revealing a stark reality where the greatest threats often come from fellow inmates rather than the guards. Rich in historical detail and emotional depth, it showcases Ha Jin's most ambitious storytelling yet.

The collection features a blend of humor and poignancy, exploring the complexities of contemporary life in China. Through a series of engaging tales, Ha Jin captures the warmth and humanity of his characters while revealing surprising and sometimes disturbing truths about their experiences. Each story offers a unique glimpse into the cultural and emotional landscape of modern China, making for a compelling read that balances delight with depth.

Novelist Ha Jin raises questions about language, migration, and the place of literature in a rapidly globalizing world. Consisting of three interconnected essays, The Writer as Migrant sets Ha Jin’s own work and life alongside those of other literary exiles, creating a conversation across cultures and between eras. He employs the cases of Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Chinese novelist Lin Yutang to illustrate the obligation a writer feels to the land of their birth, while Joseph Conrad and Vladimir Nabokov—who, like Ha Jin, adopted English for their writing—are enlisted to explore a migrant author’s conscious choice of a literary language. A final essay draws on V. S. Naipaul and Milan Kundera to consider the ways in which our era of perpetual change forces a migrant writer to reconceptualize the very idea of home. Throughout, Jin brings other celebrated writers into the conversation as well, including W. G. Sebald, C. P. Cavafy, and Salman Rushdie—refracting and refining the very idea of a literature of migration. Simultaneously a reflection on a crucial theme and a fascinating glimpse at the writers who compose Ha Jin’s mental library, The Writer as Migrant is a work of passionately engaged criticism, one rooted in departures but feeling like a new arrival.

A New York Times Notable Book highlights significant themes and characters that resonate with contemporary issues. It captivates readers through its engaging narrative and rich character development, offering insights into the human experience. The book's unique perspective and critical acclaim make it a standout choice for those seeking thought-provoking literature.

The story follows an amateur calligrapher in a provincial Chinese town who uses his artistic skills as a means of resistance against oppressive party bureaucrats. Blending dark humor with sharp social commentary, the novel explores themes of power, individuality, and the struggles of creativity within a repressive regime. Ha Jin's debut captures the tension between art and authority, offering a poignant reflection on the role of the artist in society.

From the universally admired, National Book Award-winning, bestselling author of Waiting—a timely novel that follows a famous Chinese singer severed from his country, as he works to find his way in the United States At the end of a U.S. tour with his state-supported choir, popular singer Yao Tian takes a private gig in New York to pick up some extra cash for his daughter’s tuition fund, but the consequences of his choice spiral out of control. On his return to China, Tian is informed that the sponsors of the event were supporters of Taiwan’s secession, and that he must deliver a formal self-criticism. When he is asked to forfeit his passport to his employer, Tian impulsively decides instead to return to New York to protest the government’s threat to his artistic integrity. With the help of his old friend Yabin, Tian’s career begins to flourish in the United States. But he is soon placed on a Chinese gov­ernment blacklist and thwarted by the state at every turn, and it becomes increasingly clear that he may never return to China unless he denounces the freedoms that have made his new life possible. Tian nevertheless insists on his identity as a performer, refusing to give up his art. Moving, important, and strikingly relevant to our times, A Song Everlasting is a story of hope in the face of hardship from one of our most celebrated authors.

Professor Yang, a respected teacher of literature, has had a stroke and it falls to Jian Wan - who is also engaged to Yang's daughter - to care for him. It initially seems a simple duty until the professor begins to rave, pleading with invisible tormentors and denouncing his family... Are these just manifestations of illness, or is Yang spewing up the truth? In a China convulsed by the Tiananmen uprising, those who listen to the truth are as much at risk as those who speak it. Lyrical and heart-breaking, The Crazed is an incisive portrait of modern Chinese society.

For more than seventeen years, Lin Kong, a devoted and ambitious doctor, has been in love with an educated, clever, modern woman, Mannu Wu. But, back in the traditional world of his home village lives the wife his family chose for him when he was young. Every year he visits her in order to ask, again and again, for a divorce. In a culture in which the ancient ties of tradition and family still hold sway and where adultery discovered by the Party can ruin lives forever, Lin's passionate love is stretched ever more taut by the passing years. Every summer, his compliant wife agrees to a divorce but then backs out. This time, Lin promises, will be different. Tracing these lives through their summer of decision and beyond, Ha Jin vividly conjures the texture of daily life in a place where the demands of human longing must contend with the weight of centuries of wisdom.